CHAPTER XIV 

 LEIGHTON HOUSE 



THIS book professes to tell all about gardens, gardens either 

 famous for their beauty, or for their associations with the 

 celebrated men and women who have walked in them. 



Let me here say at once that in this concluding chapter, J am 

 not going to talk very much about the garden of Leighton House, 

 but a great deal concerning him who directed its laying out, and 

 owned it. 



And in giving my personal experience of one phase of Lord 

 Leighton's character, and in bearing testimony to his kindliness, 

 his helpfulness, his interest in the rising generation of artists, and 

 his self-sacrificing devotion to his high duties and to Art I shall 

 be shedding some light on the secret of his vast influence in his 

 lifetime. 



The ideal president of any society of eminent scientists, scholars, 

 literary men, or artists, must be a many-sided man ; in his own 

 profession sufficiently distinguished to command the respect and 

 confidence of his fellows, though not of necessity as was the case 

 with the august first President of the Royal Academy incontest- 

 ably the greatest among them. The ideal president must combine 

 in his own person many and various qualities that meet but rarely 

 in one individual. Were it not so, now that the glamour of Lord 

 Leighton's presence has been removed, and the singular charm of 

 his winning personality is no more than a memory, there are 

 many among the younger generation of artists and critics of to-day, 

 who might wonder how it came about that, for the greater part 

 of a quarter of a century, he influenced the destinies of art in this 

 country, and was for seventeen years its official representative. 



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